When vibrations increase on cooling: Anti-freezing observed

An international team has observed an amazing phenomenon in a nickel oxide material during cooling: Instead of freezing, certain fluctuations actually increase as the temperature drops. Nickel oxide is a model system that ...

Entropy landscape sheds light on quantum mystery

By precisely measuring the entropy of a cerium copper gold alloy with baffling electronic properties cooled to nearly absolute zero, physicists in Germany and the United States have gleaned new evidence about the possible ...

Study proposes new way to measure superconducting fluctuations

A study published last month by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory provides theoretical evidence for a new effect that may lead to a way of measuring the exact temperature at which ...

Physicists offer new theory for iron compounds

An international team of physicists from the United States and China this week offered a new theory to both explain and predict the complex quantum behavior of a new class of high-temperature superconductors.